2008/08/29 by Edward H. Feng, Gavin E. Crooks
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics #cond-mat.stat-mech #stochastic dynamics and bifurcation #thermodynamics and calorimetric analyses
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.090602
published as Phys.Rev.Lett.101:090602,2008
arxiv created 2008/08/29 · openalex publication_date 2008/08/29 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
An unresolved problem in physics is how the thermodynamic arrow of time arises from an underlying time reversible dynamics. We contribute to this issue by developing a measure of time-symmetry breaking, and by using the work fluctuation relations, we determine the time asymmetry of recent single molecule RNA unfolding experiments. We define time asymmetry as the Jensen-Shannon divergence between trajectory probability distributions of an experiment and its time-reversed conjugate. Among other interesting properties, the length of time's arrow bounds the average dissipation and determines the difficulty of accurately estimating free energy differences in nonequilibrium experiments.